There’s a spooky ‘ghost galaxy’ lurking at the edge of the Milky Way

Astronomers discover an enigmatic clump of stars and claim it could solve one of the greatest mysteries in the universe

by NICK WHIGHAM

23rd November 2016, 12:41 pm

Updated: 24th November 2016, 5:51 am

ASTRONOMERS have detected a faint dwarf galaxy drifting nearby our own in a discovery that could point to the existence of many more in our neighbourhood.

By using an eight metre telescope with a new, larger-diameter perched on the summit of a mountain in Hawaii, scientists were able to see the satellite "ghost galaxy".

Getty Images

An artist's impression of the Milky Way, humanity's home galaxy

It’s believed to be the faintest one ever found, exhibiting an optical waveband magnitude of -0.8.

Called Virgo 1 because it lies in the direction of the constellation Virgo, the new dwarf galaxy is located about 280,000 light-years from our solar system and joins a group of approximately 50 observable satellite galaxies in the Milky Way’s neighbourhood.

The discovery of Virgo 1 was reported this week in a new study in The Astrophysical journal and could help astrophysicists better find and characterise dark matter.

Since this galaxy is so faint and yet was still discovered, the discovery may mean there are many more out there yet to be glimpsed.

This star map shows the location of the faint ghost galaxy

“This discovery implies hundreds of faint dwarf satellites waiting to be discovered in the halo of the Milky Way,” Masashi Chiba, project head and professor at the Astronomical Institute of Tohoku University in Japan, said in a statement.

In the struggle to understand dark matter — the mysterious substance that makes up about 80 per cent of the universe — astronomers look to the edges of the Galaxy.
The more faint satellites in these locations we can identify, the more we can infer about the process by which dark matter itself assembles and behaves, according to Inverse.

An illustration of the ghost galaxy's location in space

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“How many satellites are indeed there and what properties they have, will give us an important clue of understanding how the Milky Way formed and how dark matter contributed to it,” Mr Chiba said.

Among the Milky Way’s other satellite galaxies include the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, with the former being about 163,000 light years away.